Generative artificial intelligence

challenges, limits, and perspectives for higher education in Brazil

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35699/2237-5864.2026.58903

Keywords:

artificial intelligence, higher education, digital colonialism, datafication, platformization

Abstract

This article critically analyzes the uses of generative artificial intelligence in Brazilian public higher education, exploring its impacts on pedagogical, geopolitical, and sociopolitical processes, with the aim of proposing pathways for its ethical and contextualized integration. The increasing dependence on technologies developed by major corporations from the Global North reinforces digital colonialism dynamics and deepens the international division of labor, while datafication transforms human interactions into commercial value. In the Brazilian context, it is concluded that incorporating these technologies into higher education institutions compromises academic sovereignty and imposes obstacles to building educational solutions rooted in cultural, regional, and social specificities. The study is based on critical frameworks in education, sociology, and technology, adopting a qualitative analytical-documentary approach grounded in articles, reports, and guides. The ethical and epistemological challenges of adopting generative artificial intelligence in higher education, the repercussions on faculty work, and the urgent need for public policies to ensure critical, ethical, and democratic use of these tools are discussed. It concludes that adopting artificial intelligence must align with strengthening national science and promoting an education committed to social justice and autonomy of thought.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • Gabriel Gonzaga Monteiro, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sérgio Arouca (ENSP/FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
    Graduated in Social Sciences from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (2018). Master's student of the Postgraduate Program in Education (PPGEdu) at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (2020), working in the line of research - Policies, history and culture in Education, mainly in the following theme: Education and Sociology. Currently, he is part of the Teacher Training team at CDEAD - ENSP/Fiocruz.
  • Nízia Maria Ponte, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sérgio Arouca (ENSP/FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
    PhD in Education from UNIRIO - Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro. She holds a Master's degree in Education from the same institution (2009) and a degree in Pedagogy from UFRJ - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2004) and from Instituto Isabel (1992). She has experience in Higher Education, having worked as a professor in undergraduate and graduate courses at UERJ, UNIRIO and CEDERJ/UAB/CAPES. Her main areas of activity/research are Teacher Training and Work, Didactics, Assessment, Curriculum and Management. She currently coordinates the Teacher Training team at CDEAD - ENSP/Fiocruz.

References

ARRUDA, Eucidio Pimenta. Inteligência artificial generativa no contexto da transformação do trabalho docente. Educação em Revista, Belo Horizonte, v. 40, n. 40, 2024. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/edrevista/article/view/48078. Acesso em: 24 fev. 2026.

BENJAMIN, Ruha. Race after technology: abolitionist tools for the new Jim Code. Medford: Polity, 2019.

CANTARINI, Paola. Manifesto - por uma IA inclusiva, democrática e decolonial em favor da diversidade epistêmica do Sul Global, Academia de Letras da Bahia, Salvador, Caderno TropicAI, 2023. Disponível em: https://academiadeletrasdabahia.org.br/project/manifesto-por-uma-ia-inclusiva-democratica-e-decolonial-em-favor-da-diversidade-epistemica-dos-paises-do-sul-global/. Acesso em: 12 fev. 2024.

CARVALHO, Felipe; PIMENTEL, Mariano. Estudar e aprender com o ChatGPT. Revista Educação e Cultura Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, v. 20, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5935/2238-1279.20230016. Disponível em: https://mestradoedoutoradoestacio.periodicoscientificos.com.br/index.php/reeduc/article/view/11140. Acesso em: 30 abr. 2024.

DIJCK, José van; POELL, Thomas; DE WAAL, Martijn. The platform society: public values in a connective world. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190889760.001.0001. Disponível em: https://academic.oup.com/book/12378. Acesso em: 19 abr. 2024.

DIJCK, José van. Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: Big Data between scientific paradigm and ideology. Surveillance & Society, v. 12, n. 2, p. 197-208, 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v12i2.4776. Disponível em: https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/datafication. Acesso em: 30 jan. 2025.

FAUSTINO, Deivison; LIPPOLD, Walter. Colonialismo digital: por uma crítica hacker-fanoniana. São Paulo: Boitempo Editorial, 2023.

GROHMANN, Rafael. Plataformização do trabalho: entre dataficação, financeirização e racionalidade neoliberal. Revista Eletrônica Internacional de Economia Política da Informação, da Comunicação e da Cultura, São Cristóvão, v. 22, n. 1, p. 106-122, 2020. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufs.br/eptic/article/view/12188. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2024.

KERRES, Michael. Against all odds: education in Germany coping with Covid‑19. Postdigital Science and Education, v. 2, n. 3, p. 690‑694, 2020. DOI: 10.1007/s42438‑020‑00130‑7. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438 020 00130 7. Acesso em: 30 mar. 2025.

NASCIMENTO SILVA, Patrícia; LIMA, Victória Cecília Ruiz; MENDONÇA, Ricardo Fabrino; REIS, Zilma Silveira Nogueira; UNIVERSIDADE Federal de Minas Gerais. Inteligência artificial na UFMG: percepções da comunidade acadêmica – relatório da consulta à comunidade acadêmica da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais no primeiro semestre de 2025. 2. ed. Belo Horizonte: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 2025. 1 recurso online. Disponível em: https://www.ufmg.br/ia/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Inteligencia-Artificial-na-UFMG_-perc epcoes-da-comunidade-academica.pdf. Acesso em: 30 out. 2025.

NOVAES, Henrique Tahan. O fetiche da tecnologia: a experiência das fábricas recuperadas. São Paulo: Expressão Popular, 2007.

O’NEIL, Cathy. Weapons of math destruction: how big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2016.

SILVA, Isabela Maria Soares; BARBOSA, Letícia Mendes. Inov(ação): discriminação algorítmica racial e as inteligências artificiais no Brasil. Revista do CAAP, Belo Horizonte, v. 28, n. 2, p. 1-30, 2024. https://doi.org/10.69881/rcaap.v28i2.49200. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/caap/article/view/49200. Acesso em: 20 abr. 2024.

UFBA.UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DA BAHIA. Guia para uso ético e responsável da inteligência artificial generativa na Universidade Federal da Bahia. Salvador: UFBA, 2025. Disponível em: https://www.ufba.br/sites/portal.ufba.br/files/guia_para_uso_etico_e_responsavel_da_inteligencia_artificial_generativa_na_ universidade_federal_da_bahia.pdf. Acesso em: 12 mai. 2025.

UFF. UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL FLUMINENSE. Guia para o uso de ferramenta de IA generativa. Niterói, 2025. 29 p. Disponível em: https://gtia.uff.br/wp-content/uploads/sites/112/2025/11/Guia-para-o-uso-de-IA-Generativa.pdf. Acesso em: 30 set. 2025.

UFG. UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE GOIÁS. Guia de Integridade Acadêmica. Goiânia: UFG, 2024. Disponível em: https://files.cercomp.ufg.br/weby/up/680/o/Guia_de_integridade_acade%CC%82mica_-_2024_-_com_alterac%CC%A7o%CC%83es.pdf. Acesso em: 05 fev. de 2025.

UNESCO. Guia para a IA generativa na educação e na pesquisa. França: UNESCO, 2024. Disponível em: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000390241. Acesso em: 30 mar. 2024.

UNICAMP.UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE CAMPINAS. Laboratório de Inteligência Artificial (IA LAB). Campinas, 2023. Disponível em: https://www.iel.unicamp.br/ia-lab. Acesso em: 12 fev. 2024.

UNIRIO. Oficina “IA e decolonialidade”. Rio de Janeiro: Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2024.

USP.UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO. Relatório do Grupo de Trabalho sobre Inteligência Artificial Generativa no Ensino Superior. São Paulo: USP, 2023. Disponível em: https://ufg.br/n/185267-nova-versao-do-guia-de-integridade-academica-traz-capitulo-sobre- ia. Acesso em: 29 maio. 2026.

VIEGAS, Luis Eduardo. Dilemas éticos da inteligência artificial para um ensino em metamorfose. TECCOGS – Revista Digital de Tecnologias Cognitivas, n. 28, 2023. DOI: 10.23925/1984-3585.2023i28p56-66. Disponível em: https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/teccogs/article/view/67068. Acesso em: 29 maio. 2026.

WU, Emily. Sovereignty and data localization. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, 2021. Disponível em: https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/sovereignty-and-data-localization. Acesso em: 29 maio. 2026.

YU, Hao. Reflection on whether ChatGPT should be banned by academia from the perspective of education and teaching. Frontiers in Psychology, v. 14, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1181712. Disponível em: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1181712/full. Acesso em: 29 maio. 2026.

ZUBOFF, Shoshana. A era do capitalismo de vigilância: a luta por um futuro humano na nova fronteira do poder. Rio de Janeiro: Intrínseca, 2021.

Downloads

Published

2026-06-02

Issue

Vol. 16 (2026)

Section

Seção especial: IA nos processos de ensino-aprendizagem

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Nízia Maria Ponte, Gabriel Gonzaga Monteiro

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish in this journal retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which allows the sharing of work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are authorized to take additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g. publish in institutional repository or as a book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.

 

Open access policy:

Revista Docência do Ensino Superior  is an Open Access journal, which means that all content is available free of charge, at no cost to the user or their institution. Users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other legal purpose, without seeking prior permission from the publisher or author, provided they respect the license to use the Creative Commons used by the journal. This definition of open access is in line with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI).

How to Cite

GONZAGA MONTEIRO, Gabriel; PONTE, Nízia Maria. Generative artificial intelligence: challenges, limits, and perspectives for higher education in Brazil. Revista Docência do Ensino Superior, Belo Horizonte, v. 16, p. 1–17, 2026. DOI: 10.35699/2237-5864.2026.58903. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/rdes/article/view/58903. Acesso em: 17 oct. 2026.